Originally Posted by
Zombywoof
I hate to do this, but when was the last time a commercial airliner ran out of fuel?
These are the ones that come to mind:
Air Canada 143 "Gimli Glider," incorrect fuel load computation used following English/Metric changeover, fuel exhausted while cruising, glided to landing on deactivated runway, all survived
Avianca 52, out of fuel after missed approach, delayed multiple hours by weather while traveling up the E Coast, issues communicating fuel emergency w/ ATC, considerable loss of life
Air Transat 236, out of fuel when leak in one tank led to crew inadvertently cross feeding all the fuel out the leak, glided to landing at Lajes Air Base, Azores, all survived
United 173, ran out of fuel while investigating landing gear light failing to illuminate, crashed in suburban Portland with surprisingly little loss of life
Helios 522, ran out of fuel on A/P after crew incapacitated due to depressurization, cabin crew student pilot was seen briefly in the cockpit by F-16 before loss of power, presumably with supplemental oxygen tank from cabin, no survivors
And so on.
Of these, Air Transat is probably the most recent one? 2001. Helios was 2005 but loss of pressurization was the basic problem. I know I'm missing many.
NTSB search:
http://www.ntsb.gov/Pages/search.asp...Anull%7D%5D%7D
Wikipedia has more:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Airliner_accidents_and_incidents_caused_by_fuel_exh austion